Ensorcelled
by bookworm1993
Summary: Ensorcelled: Enchant, fascinate... Taking a deep breath, Harry began with the question that would confirm whether or not Draco Malfoy was even able to take this paramount job. "Are you fae touched?" Because only the fae touched are able to come and go from the fae court.
1. Fae Touched

Draco Malfoy had been having a perfectly normal day. They'd just come back from a mission so Draco and his fellow Curse Breakers had two weeks off for their three month endeavor. He was in the midst of making his lunch when loud knocking on his apartment door disturbed Draco from his cooking. Draco stopped and waited to see if they would knock again or pass as some did when the door went unanswered. He really wasn't in the mood for company. On cue they knocked, almost pounding on the door this time.

"Malfoy, open this door! I know you're home!"

Draco frowned as that sounded awfully like Harry bloody Potter. But why would the "savior" be at his door?

"Why god afternoon to you too Potter," Draco drawled, unamused.

Harry Potter's eyes steeled over. "Good Afternoon Malfoy."

Draco crossed his arms as he leaned on his door, purposefully not inviting Potter or his two colleagues in.

Almost reading his mind, Harry snorted in disbelief. "We have a job offer for you." Harry started.

"Not interested." Draco punctuated. However he was unable to retreat as Harry grabbed his forearm. "Potter get your hand off me."

"I will have the ministry lift he seal from your family vault at the end of this year instead of next if you do this job for me." Harry bargained as he let go of Malfoy, knowing he had something the Malfoys' wanted.

The Malfoy Gringott's vault had been seized as a punishment of the Malfoy's for funding and aiding Voldemort in the two reigns of his terror. For five years, all purebloods found to have funded Voldemort and his deatheaters, had their vaults locked up and temporarily seized. They were given a meager weekly allowance coordinated by the Ministry. They, the ministry, had not been near as punitive the first time and this time around, they were going to make sure that power pureblood families truly felt the consequences by controlling their purse strings.

Draco stopped, hesitating. He did not want to do anything for Potter but to be able to use the Malfoy vault one year earlier... they could finally repair the manor again- to its former glory- minus the deatheater gatherings. And his parents, they'd be well fed with three meals a day again. "Fine, come in." Draco sharply replied.

The three men shuffled in before the blonde pureblood could change his mind.

Draco put a spell on his food so it wouldn't spoil as he had a feeling that this would be a long conversation. What the hell kind of job did the bloody boy who wouldn't die, have for him? Why him? There were plenty of other curse breakers. Draco grabbed an apple on his way out of the kitchen and took a seat on his long sofa chair as the three aurors all sat uncomfortably close on the small sofa. He didn't say anything as he bit into the apple.

Harry sighed. They'd been told that Draco Malfoy had matured into a hardworking and professional curse breaker... it looked like those people had exaggerated a great deal or just his presence seemed to bring out the old Malfoy. Taking a deep breath, Harry began with the question that would confirm whether or not Draco Malfoy was even able to take this job.

"Are you fae touched?"

Draco nearly choked on his apple. "I'm sorry what?"

"We have records that indicate you have fae blood."

Draco swallowed the apple piece before he choked on it again. "Well one of my ancestors might've shacked up with a faerie on my father's side. What of it?"

"Your fae blood means you can come and go from the fae realm without worry about the barrier." One of the other aurors said, adjusting his even more boring spectacles than Potter's.

Draco shrugged. "I guess, I've never been keen to really test it out to much. They're not as attractive as books write them to be. They put a very strong illusion on themselves. They're all really strange looking grey creatures. Not nearly as dainty, fair, or glowing as they make themselves appear." Draco couldn't help but say. He'd only once been past the fae barrier to be presented to the court. Every fae touched heir was mandated to present once in court. But being human with part fae made the illusion the fae enchanted themselves with weaker as they could occasionally catch a glimpse past the illusion, and nearly always in the corner of their eyes, where light couldn't play tricks on their eyes. One minute everyone was a beautiful faerie with glittering gossamer wings, long silky hair, and fair unblemished skin, then for a second the illusion would drop as the fae blood kicked in and grey ashen creatures with gnarly dark hair and long limbs took the place of the beautiful people. They looked more like they should be called nightwalkers- something out of a nightmare than a faerie. However the fae enchantment was so strong that it was passed down even to the human offspring, so the "fae touched" offspring were ungodly beautiful, the beauty diluting with each generation, but still there. None of the true nightmarish looking forms were passed on- or was at least visible to human, fae, or fae touched. And he'd looked very hard those first years after he had visited the court.

That one glimpse had frightened him enough to never step back into the fae realm... until he had children and was forced to present the child to the court.

"But you can? Come and go?" Harry pressed.

"As far as I am aware- yes." Draco sighed, not liking where this conversation was going. If they were going to ask him to retrieve a fae treasure- they could crucify themselves. He was not dumb enough to do that. It would be sentencing himself to a permanent imprisonment in the fae realm.

Harry eyed Draco's unimpressed and distracted expression wearily, already knowing that Draco Malfoy was checking out of their conversation. Before Harry lost him altogether, he spoke up. "Draco Malfoy, we need you to retrieve Hermione Granger back from the High Queen's fae court."

-!-!-

Hey guys,

yeah I know new story... oh boy. But you will be glad to know that this is actually my own entry to my one shot/short story competition on Wattpad so it will be finished and will be a short story. Of course I'm not eligible to win, but I wanted to write my own story with the Halloween/Masquerade theme that the competition is about! Hope you all like the premise of it and will stay with me as I finish it next month!

Hope if any of you are interested in joining the competition, you can go to my profile on there and read the rules. There are prizes... small but still fun.

All entries are due by October 20th midnight on US Eastern standard time. All of the competitions dates are of the same timezone.


	2. The Reluctant Knight & the Swan Princess

Draco said nothing as his parents stared at him.

"I don't see why they can't let the girl stay there," Narcissa sighed.

"I wouldn't be so surprised if they kicked her out on their own because of her insufferableness." Lucius replied in turn- quite mimicking his son's thoughts from earlier. Neither was comfortable with the idea of their only son going to the faerie world alone, to rescue someone that none of them frankly cared enough about.

"I simply don't understand why they would kidnap Hermione Granger in the first place?"

This time it was Draco's turn to sigh. "It wasn't so much kidnapping as it was... imprisonment. And-" Draco casted a spell to show them the picture Harry Potter had given him.

His mother's eyes widened much like his had. The woman in the picture of course bore a resemblance to the Hermione Granger they knew but... that version was but a child and this version was an adult in every way. Square boyish curves had rounded to maturity. Her wild hair had been tamed. Soft honey brown curls framed a delicate face which had lost all of its baby fat with cheeks bones that were high yet full, making her mature but still youthful. Ruby red lips were the only trace of visible makeup as her face was perfectly smooth and blemish free. The Malfoy Family was silent as they realized that Hermione Granger had turned into a swan.

-!-!-

"So what is the plan to get Granger back?"

Harry looked at his colleague who had the most expertise with fae.

"Time in the fae world moves much slower than it does in ours." The man explained.

"Yes," Draco said not impressed.

"Tomorrow, we will need you to go into the fae court- there you will have a week in our time, two days in theirs to find Hermione Granger. We will give you an object before you go that will come alive with a countdown to All Hallow's Eve."

Draco sat up. So that was their plan...

"At All Hallow's Eve, that is when the veil-"

Draco waved him off. "I know okay, I'm not stupid."

The man ignored him. "Weakest between the two worlds. Unfortunately none can enter the fae world but those already there may leave, even the lesser fae who have not enough magic to make a path to our world. The object we will give you will also indicate to you by when the barrier will strengthen once more. Before then, you need to get Hermione Granger across the barrier, where we will wait."

"Well what if the fae try to stop us?" Draco asked.

"We will do our best from this side to prevent any fae from our side from going back through and interfering." Harry said.

"But I'm basically on my own." Draco said dryly.

"Unfortunately yes," The other man nodded, not quite in the same optimistic mood as Harry Potter.

Draco frowned.

"If you can find Hermione's wand- she'll be able to fight with you."

Draco's brows rose. How did they know Granger did not have her wand?

Harry blushed. "We had a spy lesser fae go and scope things out for us. Unfortunately he has now been banned."

"No loss on his part, I'm sure." Draco muttered. "Why the bloody hell did they decide to keep Hermione Granger anyway? I'm surprised they haven't found her to be so insufferable that they gave her back on their own bloody accord!"

Harry held in his own simmering temper before handing Draco Malfoy an enchanted card. The card was wrapped like a bow by a thorny vine.

"Ouch!" Draco yipped when the bloody vine on the card snapped out to bite his hand, drawing a drop of blood from his thumb.

The card opened to reveal the inside of a rose, the paper as soft as a petal.

You are cordially invited to the wedding of

Crown Prince Althalos and Hermione Granger of the British Ministry

The date was on All Hallow's Eve...

Draco cursed. What the bloody hell; forget their bloody vault. He was not going to crash a fae wedding- much less one of the bloody Crown Prince! Not only was he asking to be imprisoned himself, but he was also asking to be tortured for the rest of his miserable life!

Draco walked to his door and opened it. His arms were crossed as he waited expectantly for the three men to get a clue. All three looked at each other before Harry coughed, knowing they were no longer welcome.

Harry let his colleagues get ahead of him. "Malfoy-no one believed that you and your family deserved a second chance more than Hermione. I only fought to prevent your mother from landing in Azkaban. It was Hermione who held the meeting to keep you and your father free men."

Draco's expression faltered.

"Just because you were a Slytherin doesn't mean you don't have bravery in you somewhere. Frankly I don't see it but-" Harry summoned a picture of his best friend from his and Ginny's wedding. "She did."

-!-!-

"Father, did you know?" Draco asked as he relayed Potter's words.

"No, I only knew the judgement of the Death Eaters was done behind closed doors. Potter could be lying but-" Lucius faltered. Sure the boy who lived could be obnoxious and a little self-righteous, but he was not a liar. Lucius sighed at his thoughts. And the idea of Hermione Granger stepping up to stand for former Death Eaters who'd only helped them very little in the scheme of things- did not sound preposterous.

Draco sat back in his seat, still unsure of himself. Sure no one deserved to be imprisoned in the fae realm- and especially not Granger but was he strong enough to actually accomplish escaping the Fae realm with Granger- the bloody Crown Prince's fiancé, apparently?

"I don't like the idea of you in danger sweetheart, but I think you have to try for Hermione Granger and yourself." Narcissa said softly, wishing her words weren't so true. But maybe this adventure would make everything even between the Malfoy family and the Potters even, even more so, would stop Draco from running away...

-!-!-

Later that night, Harry was in his office trying to figure out how to hack the faerie invitation so that anyone with an invitation, not only one with fae blood could get into the realm. An incessant knocking brought him out of his thoughts- all of which centered on wishing Hermione was there to help him... rescue her. He opened up the window for an unfamiliar own to swoop in and drop off a letter to him.

I'll do it

Malfoy

-!-!-

Hermione slashed repeatedly at another vine with the cutlery knife she had stolen after her forced dinner with second in line of ascension, Prince Borin, her so called fiancé's brother. "This is what you get Hermione Granger for breaking up with normal and predictable Ron Weasley and reading all those bloody muggle novels about Prince Charmings! Stupid Julie Garwood novels! I just want to read a romance every once in a while, not actually be in one! Is that such a crime?!" She muttered darkly to herself before glaring down at the pale blue and white ombre faerie made dress that the faerie maids in waiting had forced her into having stashed away all her professional looking pantsuits. It was beautiful, with a low heart shaped neckline that accentuated her modest chest. Pale blue freesia's were embroidered on the top and floated down the dress, the petals almost looking like feathers, fading in color with the ombre. The long train was dragging uselessly on the ground but it refused to be cut. She'd originally slashed so many times at it she almost lost her breath in her vigor before giving up to make her escape. One would never know looking at the dress, for it looked as good as new as it did laying in the room they were calling her chambers whilst she called it a very luxurious prison cell. If she wasn't trying to escape from an unwarranted engagement, she'd be quite fascinated to study what exactly the dress was made of and recreate for her own wardrobe. She'd say goodbye to ripped pantyhose forever...

"Bloody unicorn grievance treaties," Hermione cursed the reason why she had even been invited into the fae court only to somehow catch the eye of some bloody crown prince that she didn't even know looked like and suddenly found herself imprisoned in two different manners. Also it seemed the further from the castle she got, the thicker the vines were getting and the duller her cutlery knife was getting. Why couldn't they make their cutlery as durable as their bloody dresses. Priorities really...

Unfortunately as Hermione was slashing madly at one very stubborn vine, a chime could be heard throughout the realm, a chime that she'd learnt tonight from Prince Borin, had been especially made just for her. A sound that notified the faerie realm that the Crown Prince's chosen bride had tried to escape... again. At least this time, no maids in waiting were left with a black eye that would have even made a third year Draco Malfoy back away before the word Mudblood could be uttered.


End file.
